Success in Spain for Uppermill footballers

UPPERMILL UNDER-16 girls are back from a four-day trip to Spain where they defeated Catalonian champions St Celoni 7-3.

Goal machine Nicole Thorp scored a hat-trick, Olivia Cunningham hit two and there were one apiece for Sophie Adams and goalkeeper Megan Brierley who found the net with a huge clearance.

And the Uppermill team was such a hit there is talk of them being invited back for another visit.

A party of 23 made the trip to just outside Barcelona, comprising players, club staff and parents.

“We had been planning the trip for 12 months holding events to raise as much money as we could,” explained Carrbrook-based joint manager Andy Thorp.

He added he can remember going to Hem, France, as a youngster with Mossley Juniors, a trip that provided a lasting memory.

It has been an amazing couple of years as the team has just completed back-to-back league titles in the North Manchester Girls’ League in which they have not lost a match for two seasons. They won this year with seven games still to play such was their supremacy.

And what is more it is an under-15 side playing in an under-16 league so most of the girls will be eligible to play again next season.

Andy, joint manager with Andy Gregory whose daughter Robyn also stars for the team, is delighted in a remarkable turnabout in the fortunes of the team that until three years ago struggled to buy a victory.

He said: “The girls have been together since the age of eight/nine but, until three years ago, I don’t think we ever won more than three games in a season.

“It was not about winning, but learning. Then something suddenly clicked and the last two seasons have been amazing.

“We had never won anything until last season when we landed the double. And this season we could win four trophies.”

Andy’s daughter Nicole scored 63 goals last season and is about to break the 50 mark again in the current campaign.

He also says Rebecca Lilley and Sophie Adams have each scored more than 15 goals each while Courtney Hopwood has been the team’s midfield general.

Of the normal starting team, five players are from Uppermill, five from Mossley and the other one lives in Oldham.